This past weekend my wonderful wife went to Atlanta for an inservice event. So I got to have a Daddy/Daughter weekend with my beautiful daughter. There is nothing quite like having quality time with your two year old daughter.

The game of peek-a-boo didn’t last long because there were more slides to explore. Emma got to slide on her first metal slide and the first thing out of her mouth was “That was fast.” No photos were taken during the metal slide because I had to help her climb it then run to the other end to catch her. It was so much fun to watch her on the metal slide.

It’s hard to believe that Emma is 20 months old. It seems like yesterday that I was holding her in my arms and she was so tiny.  Now she sings and dances. She will get her own diapers when she needs to be changed. She has her favorite books and toys. It is amazing to see her growing up before my eyes. She loves her books and one of my favorite phrases from her is “Daddy read it” and she will bring me one book, then another and another.  Check out the song “One More Book” by the Imagination Movers, I think it was written with Emma in mind. The Imagination Movers is one of her favorite TV shows and music. She loves to dance and sing along to their music.

So I decided to try and capture a few of these things in portraits. While I believe that I captured her love of books during the photo session, it was really hard to capture her love of dancing and singing.  I hope these portraits of my daughter make you smile.

Make sure you take time to capture these fleeting moments with your family.

Let me know if I can help you create memorable portraits for your family.

Everyone needs to get away every once and awhile.  We decided to spend some time with my parents near my home town for a week in Michigan.  We rented a cottage on Barlow Lake for a week.  It was beautiful there.

Here is a sunrise photograph from the dock.

We had so much fun playing around in the boat.  It was Emma’s first experience with a life jacket and a boat ride.  She didn’t like the life jacket at first, but once we were on the boat and the wind was blowing through her hair, she loved it.

As you can see she really warmed up to the boat and by the end of the week she didn’t want to leave it behind. When we were getting ready to head back to Tennessee, she waved bye-bye to the boat. It was cute.

My parents brought along there new puppy, Chloe.  Chloe is a border collie, who is 11 months old and still in the midst of her training.  This was Chloe’s first experience with a boat and water.

Along with the boat ride, Chloe had her first experience swimming.  My parents had brought along a new toy for her. The toy is designed to help dogs learn to fetch in the water.

This was a never ending game.  Chloe absolutely loved the water and always wanted to get in.

Emma also loved the water and wanted to get in as often as she could.  She would point at the lake and  say “bath”.  In her understanding, it was a giant bath tub and she loves to play in the bath.

We also got to spend some time with my grandparents, Emma’s great grandparents.  She was shy at first but started warming up to them by the end of the week.

This week left me with such a sense of wonder at how fast children grow and learn.  At the beginning of the week Emma was walking some on her own, by the end of the week Emma was walking all over the place.  I am in awe of this beautiful child that was given to Robin and me.

Click here to see more photographs from our vacation.